Hardware Help - Do I move back to PC?

[Dominik]

no go thread.
research in internet that your soundcard driver is working properly on win xp.
win xp is since a couple of years stable.
win 98 was a hell for me but i was anyway a noob.

there are sites like this.

http://www.tweakxp.com/

be careful with tweaking the services,this can be a pain in the ass,
i don't think it makes the system really faster.
you can overclock a modern cpu easily.

xp likes it if you defragment it from time to time.
also clean your registries.

installation is idiot proof.

[mohler]

+1 for the refurb MBP.

I don't think I could bring myself to going back to PC for exactly the same reason as you detailed above.

Don't mind Popslut. I'm with you I've had way too many blue screens and random shit happen to me when I was on PC to make it worth while. I've had little to no problemsm on stage, since I've switched. Stick with what you know. It's a whole world of pain on the other side. (remember it's not the architecture it's the OS)

If you crank up a PC laptop to the same spec as an Mac it's the same price or as close too. The perceived price difference is because Dell advertise, "Get a New INtel DUal blah blah for £1," and then you spec it on line and you have to add on, windows, enough Ram to start it up, a bigger drive, etc etc etc. And that's just for the cheapest plastic crap that they can fling together from china. and it's 3 inches thick a looks like something you would use to prop open you door.

Upps, I just realised that i've gone on a rant, never mind.

Don't do it! Even if there's a price difference it's worth it for your sanity and that lovely fluffy feeling you get every time you take it out and use it because you know it's going to work, first time, every time.

[adventurepants_]

+1 for the refurb MBP.

I don't think I could bring myself to going back to PC for exactly the same reason as you detailed above.

Don't mind Popslut. I'm with you I've had way too many blue screens and random shit happen to me when I was on PC to make it worth while. I've had little to no problemsm on stage, since I've switched. Stick with what you know. It's a whole world of pain on the other side. (remember it's not the architecture it's the OS)

If you crank up a PC laptop to the same spec as an Mac it's the same price or as close too. The perceived price difference is because Dell advertise, "Get a New INtel DUal blah blah for £1," and then you spec it on line and you have to add on, windows, enough Ram to start it up, a bigger drive, etc etc etc. And that's just for the cheapest plastic crap that they can fling together from china. and it's 3 inches thick a looks like something you would use to prop open you door.

Upps, I just realised that i've gone on a rant, never mind.

Don't do it! Even if there's a price difference it's worth it for your sanity and that lovely fluffy feeling you get every time you take it out and use it because you know it's going to work, first time, every time.

-1

this is a bunch of prejudices and stories. a well setup xp system is as stable as anything apple makes, its simply a fact. there is a lot more scope for user error on the pc, but it is absolutely rock solid with some care. and the hardware will cost you a reasonable amount less if you shop around. the pc market is huge, there are some great buys, and some terrible overpriced pieces of cack.

MBPs are a great computer as well, i just cant let all the iFanboys spread their uninformed rubbish unchallenged.

[forge]

overall I've had much the same experience as you, but the problem with PCs is that they are unpredictable because of all the billions of hardware configurations and I have had one or two over time that havent co-operated for no apparent reason and I have wasted weeks of my life that I will never get back

dont forget that you chose to do that forge. anyone who does PC for a living could have fixed your problems easily and quickly, and much cheaper than two weeks of your time.

everyone fancies themselves a pc expert with no training, and when they get stuck with a PC problem they blame it on the system rather than their own lack of experience. would you start taking apart and tinkering with your air con unit, and when you had problems with its innards start blaming the design of it, or your own lack of knowledge? fuck that, youd just ring the air con guy to come fix it.

well, yes and no - I have been troubleshooting PCs for a very long time, well before win95, and maybe someone who's fixed them for a living may well do it quickly and easily, but I'm not sure that;s a given, I've had plenty of 'experts' stumped over certain things over the years - usually related to trying to get a general purpose PC to run audio - a lot of PC experts often dont know about Audio specific issues

I've never been able to afford to pay someone to fix things, and true a lot of the time problems are created by me fucking around with it and stuffing something up accidentally

but you cant argue that there are benefits to Apple having handled all aspects of it AND given consideration to things like professional audio and MIDI - that stuff has never been high on Microsoft's radar

like I said, generally I've had good experiences with PCs, and I have always fixed problems myself - and I can tell you from experience it's a fuck of a lot easier fixing this stuff with the internet to hand rather than a DOS manual, but still I think for Audio I would have gone mac if I could have afforded it, more so because of things like IAC and the fact that Apple pay a bit more attention to the things useful for audio/music people

[forge]

there is a lot more scope for user error on the pc, .

and that right there is the issue in a nutshell

I'm getting too old to want to fuck around any more, I just want to get my work done

now - I have to say though, after all the headache I had getting XP to run on my new laptop it's now fine and I wont likely have to think about it again until I get a new PC - once it's up and stable XP is fine, but that's not what I'm talking about

for an end user who just wants to make music without any fucking around there probably is a good argument for going mac, especially in this vista climate

[adventurepants_]

for an end user who just wants to make music without any fucking around there probably is a good argument for going mac, especially in this vista climate

couldnt agree with you more. i think macs are fantastic tools, and well designed. What im objecting to is all the uninformed babble in this thread from the mac massive who give advice to posters that is based on wrong or ancient info.

[butch_d]

i'm using pc labtops (dell, toshiba) for 5 years with Live and Reaktor and never have a problem with them... )
install winxp pro sp2 and don't overload the cpu - and you will have a stable system...))

p.s. yes also macs are very good machines but quite expensive...) the best way is to have the pc and also the mac for various tasks...

[mohler]

-1

this is a bunch of prejudices and stories. a well setup xp system is as stable as anything apple makes, its simply a fact. there is a lot more scope for user error on the pc, but it is absolutely rock solid with some care. and the hardware will cost you a reasonable amount less if you shop around. the pc market is huge, there are some great buys, and some terrible overpriced pieces of cack.

MBPs are a great computer as well, i just cant let all the iFanboys spread their uninformed rubbish unchallenged.

adventurepants_

I'm afraid I have to disagree.

The fact that this is my story is correct and yes it's prejudiced, that's because it's an opinion, like you have just stated but then you have to realise that so is yours.

My opinion has been formed through a 10 year career in IT support, all things windows and networking, ranging from building PCs from scratch to major Network and OS roll outs across large organisations.

I have also being a computer based musician for even longer. I have more experience of producing & playing live on PC and still come to the same conclusion. For me a mac is the only way I'm prepared to make and perform music, because that's what I want to do. I don't want to be nursing my computer, or tweaking it so that it works the way it should, or removing spyware or viruses, or just wiping the OS because it's not stable enough to last 6 months.

I would argue that my statement was not uninformed rubbish. I have lived with both Operating systems to a major degree and know them both extremely well.

Like I said this is my opinion and my decision is based not on 'fanboy' or marketing hype. When I switched to mac I chose to move to a Powerbook, a computer that was more expensive and a lot less powerful than any competing PC laptops on the market at the time that was about at the time. Not a decision taken lightly it was one borne out of a deep knowledge and frustration with the user experience and amount of time I had to invest to keep my system up and running.

As a PC user I did have a inherent distrust of macs and a dislike of the superior air of their users, until I had my first experience of supporting them in a mixed office environment. OS 9 & X on many machines. I couldn't understand why anyone would still be using 4 & 5 Year old computers but they had so few problems and were so reliable. There was only 1 PC in the office and I spend more time with it and it's user than the other 12 macs.

I would counter your argument and suggest that most PC users are coming from a place of ignorance where they have little or no experience of using macs on a day to day basis. That certainly was me until I had to support them and subsequently decided to move my music set up over to a mac.

Unless you have considerable mac experience, which I hope you do (adventurepants_), then I suggest that everyone keeps their opinion a little more in check as making general sweeping statements about topics that you are uninformed on, only serves to debase your opinion within a group of peers.

I'm very happy for you that your set up works well for you and I agree that ignoring Vista is probably a good idea for the moment.

Happy music making what ever platform you choose.

Roly

[hambone1]

adventurepants_

I'm afraid I have to disagree.

The fact that this is my story is correct and yes it's prejudiced, that's because it's an opinion, like you have just stated but then you have to realise that so is yours.

My opinion has been formed through a 10 year career in IT support, all things windows and networking, ranging from building PCs from scratch to major Network and OS roll outs across large organisations.

I have also being a computer based musician for even longer. I have more experience of producing & playing live on PC and still come to the same conclusion. For me a mac is the only way I'm prepared to make and perform music, because that's what I want to do. I don't want to be nursing my computer, or tweaking it so that it works the way it should, or removing spyware or viruses, or just wiping the OS because it's not stable enough to last 6 months.

I would argue that my statement was not uninformed rubbish. I have lived with both Operating systems to a major degree and know them both extremely well.

Like I said this is my opinion and my decision is based not on 'fanboy' or marketing hype. When I switched to mac I chose to move to a Powerbook, a computer that was more expensive and a lot less powerful than any competing PC laptops on the market at the time that was about at the time. Not a decision taken lightly it was one borne out of a deep knowledge and frustration with the user experience and amount of time I had to invest to keep my system up and running.

As a PC user I did have a inherent distrust of macs and a dislike of the superior air of their users, until I had my first experience of supporting them in a mixed office environment. OS 9 & X on many machines. I couldn't understand why anyone would still be using 4 & 5 Year old computers but they had so few problems and were so reliable. There was only 1 PC in the office and I spend more time with it and it's user than the other 12 macs.

I would counter your argument and suggest that most PC users are coming from a place of ignorance where they have little or no experience of using macs on a day to day basis. That certainly was me until I had to support them and subsequently decided to move my music set up over to a mac.

Unless you have considerable mac experience, which I hope you do (adventurepants_), then I suggest that everyone keeps their opinion a little more in check as making general sweeping statements about topics that you are uninformed on, only serves to debase your opinion within a group of peers.

I'm very happy for you that your set up works well for you and I agree that ignoring Vista is probably a good idea for the moment.

Happy music making what ever platform you choose.

Roly

Brilliant.

THE definitive informed, intelligent, unemotional, experienced and educated answer to the Mac vs PC debate.

[mohler]

Thanks hambone

[ernene]

I don't care what you use, buy or whatever... but, adventurepants_, the thing is that most people I know that are making music with pc live with headaches 'cos their machines... they're musicians, not pc tecnicians... and they have really bad times with their set ups... that's not funny at all when what you want to do is make music!!!!
On the other side, I do have a few less friends with mac, and almost all of them are happy users, just one had had some bad luck and had to change 2 times MBP... but that's a case... ALL of them are just making music!!!!
Non of my friends know anything about pc, how to tweak or anything... THEY WANT TO BE ABLE TO MAKE MUSIC!!!!
Have of the pc guys have switched lastly... and they're making music now, and using their Mac as a tool to get what they want, not to fancy with their Apple stickers or anything like that...
Sorry, but not all the people that use computers want to know everything about them, the same with cars, and so on, we want a tool that works ok and that if I spend some money on it, it won't make me spend more money taking it to a tecnician every moth!!!! IT'S JUST A F*CKN TOOL!!!!! that have to work, and that's it!
I might be stupid, I have no idea on coding or anything, I just use this silly and simple machine for dummies called mac, but it's simple and does what I want without giving me any headache!!! What's wrong with that? It's less powerful, maybe, but i NEVER have probles with it, NEVER had in 5 years, isn't this stable? well, yes.

As adventurepants_ said, their are fantastic tools, and some people find that pc are fantastic or better, so ok, that's perfect. But some people that use mac and kmow nothing about pc give advice because almost all of them been a pc user before, and after switching had a better time making music, not all, but almost... I've been one.

[Stace]

A big up for the internet, word to my cunts!